Got Damaged Drywall After Wallpaper Removal?

Usually, this comes about because the drywall was not properly primed (sealed) before the wallpaper was hung. The powerful modern wallpaper glues will soak right through the face paper of the improperly prepared drywall and bond tightly to it.

When you dampen the wallpaper and begin to take it off, it may take off parts of the drywall face paper as well, resulting in major drywall damage. And even when it doesn’t pull off the outer face paper (revealing the brown under layers), it will raise blisters which may not be visible until you later try to skim the drywall to smooth it out. Then, out pop the multitude of unsightly blisters. Yikes, what a mess!

I just did a job last week (Oct. 08) for a client with this problem.. When they had earlier stripped the wallpaper, they noticed areas where the face paper came off as well. They called me. I took one look and saw my work laid out for me. I have dealt with this before, many times.

So here is how I usually go about tackling this sort of stuff.

First, using a sharp utility knife, I make a circular cut completely around each area of visible damage. These can range from spots as small as a quarter to as large as a foot across or more.

I cut just deep enough to score the face paper. Now I peel off the loose paper, which will extend to the cut perimeter. I may find that multiple thin layers will come off. I try to make sure that what remains is tight with no blisters. Usually there is still some intact paper remaining within the circular cut, although it may happen sometimes that you end up with the white gypsum core staring back at you.

When I have gone over the whole wall and am satisfied that I found all the damaged drywall spots, then I roll on a quick drying oil based sealer over the whole wall. The point of this is to render the surface impervious to moisture.

After the oil sealer has dried (allowing a couple of hours minimum), I use joint compound to repair the damaged areas where I cut and peeled paper. If the moisture from thejoint mud soaks in, I can get additional blisters. I could find myself repeating the earlier repair steps over and over again. So the oil is supposed to prevent this from happening.

Does it? Mostly, yes. But a few additional blisters may show up anyway, which is just what happened last week. So I cut and peeled those too, but did not repeat the oil sealer step, since these blisters were fairly small.

On the large areas I have peeled earlier, I cemented strips of paper joint tape (with hot mud) side by side, spanning the damaged drywall spots. Then I topped them.This reinforced these major areas.

The last step after filling all the peeled spots with hot mud was to do a final skim coat over the entire wall, using all purpose joint mud. This is easier to sand than the hot mud brand I use.

So, when I am all done, I advise the customer. I explain the need for a good coat of PVA primer over the whole wall. And, if they are planning to go back with new wallpaper, I suggest a coat of oil primer over the PVA, because the water based primer alone in not enough. Now, when they hang wallpaper again, there will be a water impervious surface to protect the underlying, repaired drywall.

At this point, the damaged drywall is a distant memory. All it took was some hours of sweat and fuss and knowing the right steps and materials to use.

Now you can do what I did. It may not be fun, but it will work.

You're all done? Well, you may decide you don't really want a smooth surface as a stand along effect. Have you thought about putting on an attractive texture - yourself?

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